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World Chess Championship
1975 Fischer forfeits to Karpov


I don't know how Fischer feels about it, but I consider it a huge loss
that he and I never played our match. I felt like the child who has
been promised a wonderful toy and has it offered to him but then, at
the last moment, it's taken away. - A.Karpov, Karpov on Karpov

Fischer demanded that the match be won by the first player to win ten
games, with no limit to the number of games. The champion would retain
the title in the event of a 9-9 score. This meant, of course, that the
challenger would need to win the match by a score of 10-8.

FIDE's rules were that the reigning champion retained the title in the
event of a 12-12 tie after 24 games. The same rules governing World
Championship matches had been in place since the 1949 FIDE Congress in
Paris. They were confirmed at the 1974 Congress in Nice.

Fischer claimed that his proposal was fairer to the challenger than
FIDE's limit of 24 games. In a letter to Larry Evans published
November 1974 in Chess Life, Fischer wrote:-

Steinitz, Tchigorin, Lasker (too), Gunsberg, Zukertort, etc. all
played under the ten win system I proposed (and some matches with the
9-9 tie clause). Yet the Russians pretend that I'm asking for an
UNPRECEDENTED advantage. Incidentally, Larry, the Capa-Alekhine match
DID have a draw clause at 5-5. Yes, Alekhine had to win by 6-4 to take
the title just the same as my match proposal.
In the same issue of Chess Life, editor Burt Hochberg quoted Fischer:-

The whole idea is to make sure the players draw blood by winning
games, and the spectators get their money's worth.

and then commented:-

The rules say that draws do not count in the scoring, but they
certainly do count as games played, and every draw in a limited match
brings the leader's ultimate victory closer. Fischer is correct, in
our opinion, and the current [Karpov-Korchnoi Candidates semifinal]
match proves it. If FIDE does not discourage draws by forcing the
players to win, chess may die the draw-death predicted by Capablanca
many years ago. The public deserves a fighting match, and it is FIDE's
obligation to set the rules that will make it possible. Taking a cue
from Bobby, some enterprising businessman should produce a button
reading: DRAW BLOOD, NOT GAMES.
Ed Edmondson of the USCF negotiated on Fischer's behalf. An
extraordinary FIDE Congress, called at Bergen-aan-Zee in Holland in
March 1975, refused to change FIDE's decision.

Fischer did not respond to the FIDE invitation to play the match under
FIDE conditions. Karpov was declared World Champion on 1 April 1975.
It is Karpov's curious fate that he has never beaten a reigning world
champion in a match for the title.

Underlying the controversy is the question of whether the champion
should have any advantage in a tie match.